Page 10 of The Wrong Date Deal

“Wow. Sorry. I was just expecting… I don’t know what I was expecting. I don’t do this a lot.” She frowned. “Sorry.”

Piper laughed. “Don’t worry. I do it all the time and this is already going a lot better than most of them.”

She winced. “That good, huh? Maybe I shouldn’t have allowed myself to be talked into getting back on the dating scene.”

“Oh, don’t worry. Even if it goes terribly, you end up with great stories to tell your friends, family, random strangers at the doctor’s office.”

“That something you do a lot, is it? Tell strangers your dating mishaps?”

Piper grinned. “Oh, far more often than you’d think. Really raises the tone of a gathering.”

She laughed, the sound warm and full. “I can only imagine.”

“Want me to go back out and re-enter in a more memorable way so you’ll have a good story for the strangers?”

“Oh, I don’t know. This feels pretty memorable so far.”

“Indeed, but is it the kind of memorable that’s going to bond you with a bunch of strangers who are either going through the same thing and grateful they’re not alone, or sitting there smug because they’re off the market and feeling great they’re not in your shoes?”

“Oh. Ouch. So, you’ve had some rough dates?”

“The last one said she was booking the restaurant, didn’t, and just stood looking at me, silently, when we walked up to the host at the restaurant she was supposed to book.”

She stared at Piper with wide eyes. “She didn’t say anything? Didn’t warn you?”

“Nope. Honestly, across the entire date, I could probably count the number of things she said on my fingers.”

“I’m guessing it wasn’t a five-minute date.”

“It was not.”

“Wow.” She nodded slowly. “Okay, yeah, this is already a million times better than that and, I guess, isn’t going to get me any points at the doctor’s office.”

Piper smirked. “Am I sad about that? I don’t think so.”

A smile broke out on her face, moving in a way that made it feel like she was a flower blooming, each part of her face lifting and brightening until she was radiant, with a row of perfect, white teeth on display. “I can see that. Can’t say I’m sad I won’t be the villain of the piece at your next checkup either.”

“Oh, you should be. I’ve got a dental appointment next week and you could have been the star. Got to give them a good performance so they forget to ask me if I’ve been using their recommended toothpaste.”

“I’m guessing you haven’t?”

“No. Can’t stand the stuff. Weird aftertaste. I’m sticking with my usual. Seems to have served me well so far.”

She looked pointedly at Piper’s mouth and, for one second, Piper’s stomach jolted. The move felt forward and flirtatious, and Piper felt interested. It almost felt too much for a café, even if she had started it and knew it wasn’t anything salacious.

“Seems like it’s serving you very well,” the woman said.

Piper felt herself blush. It had been a long time since she’d blushed on a date, and she’d never done it so early on. “Thank you very much. My friends aren’t going to know what to do with themselves when I tell them about this introduction. They were expecting terrible things from an app with this level of anonymity.”

She nodded. “Honestly? Me too.”

Piper laughed. “Yeah, fair.”

She laughed and moved forward in line. “So, since we’re talking about it, is this a good time to introduce ourselves?”

“It does rather seem like the thing to do, doesn’t it?”

“Maybe just a little. While there’s a case to be made for the mystique of not knowing, I think this whole thing might go better if we do.”

---